Convict of 1993 Mumbai blasts hanged to death in India

Security has been beefed up all across Maharashtra, particularly in Nagpur and Mumbai.

The sole convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case. But the three-judge bench, which had rejected his plea Wednesday, again turned down Memon’s petition.

Yakub Memon, the man convicted of financing a series of bomb attacks that killed more than 250 people in Mumbai in 1993, has been hanged.

The execution came despite the fact that India rarely carries out death sentences. So, don’t expect the president to become an appellate judge over the Supreme Court. That appeal reflected both opposition to the death penalty as well as fresh claims by his lawyers that he freely surrendered to Indian authorities in Kathmandu, Nepal, and that his direct links to the bombings had not been sufficiently established. This plea was dismissed by the three-judge bench comprising Justice Deepak Mishra, Justice Amitava Roy and Justice Prafulla Chandra Pant in an unprecedented hearing that began in the wee hours today and ended at dawn.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury at the party office said that all people who support terror in one or the other form should be punished but not given the capital punishment.

Nagpur jail sources informed that Yakub said, “I want to meet my daughter”.

The motivation was said to have been revenge for the destruction of a 16th century Muslim holy site by a mob of Hindu nationalists. A total of 100 people have been convicted. The others had their sentences commuted to life in prison.

The body of Yakub, brought to Mumbai from Nagpur earlier in the day, was buried at Bada Kabristan graveyard in Chandanwadi, Fadnavis said. As a matter of fact, there were some journalists, politicians, and civil society members who wrote to the president and asked him to spare Yakub Memon from being executed because of a crime that he himself did not mastermind.

“It’s extremely sad that India has gone ahead, we had been hoping India will now call for a moratorium,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch. But the definition is debated and the only executions in recent years have been of convicted terrorists.

The Press Trust of India news agency also reported the execution, citing officials. “The death sentence was not given to any religion, but to a person who was trying to execute the conspiracy of Pakistan”, he insisted.

The protestors also raised slogans in favour of Afzal Guru, hanged in 2013 due to his involvement in the 2001 parliament attack case. His body will be flown to his hometown in Mumbai for cremation after an autopsy, and is expected to reach the city by Thursday afternoon.

Memon’s dead body was handed over to his family.